Device for transferbing railway cars



March 11 19240 11,486,235

H. B. DWIGHT DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING RAILWAY CARS Filed July- 1. 1922 3Sheets-Sheet 1 I nvenior March 11 1924.

. H.- B. DWIGHT DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING RAILWAY CARS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2Invewl-or 3:5 Herbert B. Dwight Filed July 1, 1922 H. B. DWIGHT DEVICEFOR TRANSFERRING RAILWAY CARS March 111 1924 Filed July 1. 1922 3Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Mar. 11, 1924.

HERBERT BRISTOL DWIGHT, OF HAIJIILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA.

DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING B-AIINVAY CARS.

Application filed July 1,

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT BinsToL DWIGHT, a subject of the King ofGreat Britain, and a resident of the city of Hamilton, in the county ofVVentworth, Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, have in ventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Transferring RailwayCars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in devices for transferring railwaycars with particular reference to the use of travelling crane equipmentapplicable to railway terminal yards, and the object of the invention isto increase the speed with which cars may be sorted and trains made upin a railway terminal yard; to increase the capacity for handling carsin a railway terminal of a given size and to prevent the extremecongestion which often occurs when an unusually large number of freightcars are sent to a terminal. Other objects will appear in the course ofthe following specification.

My invention consists essentially of the application to a railwayterminal yard, having the usual series of parallel tracks, of aplurality of travelling cranes some of which are operable lengthwise ofthe yard and parallel with the tracks, while other of the cranes areoperable crosswise of the tracks, the cranes being specially equipped tolift a car bodily off the tracks, remove it to any other desired pointin the yard and redeposit it upon any other desired track location, allas hereinafter more particularly described and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings in which;

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a railway terminal yard showingthe application of my travelling crane system thereto.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic end elevation of a terminal yard showing theapplication of my invention thereto.

Fig. 3 is an elevation, partly in section, showing one of my travellingcranes in the position ready to lift a car, a rigid vertical crane armcarried thereby being broken away intermediately of its length and a cargrappling arrangement carried by the lower end of this rigid arm beingshown in end elevation.

Fig. 4 is an elevation of the lower por- 1922. Serial No. 572,191.

tion of a rigid crane arm used in my invention showing, in sideelevation, a car grappling frame carried at the lower end thereof. 7

Fig. 5 is a detached side elevation of a built up type of truck frameused on some freight cars, showing the application thereto of a pad usedin my invention.

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the pad shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a detached view showing a modified form of grappling device.

In the drawings like characters of ref erence indicate correspondingparts in the different views.

1 indicates a series of parallel railway tracks in a terminal yard, 2being the usual diagonal or ladder track having switch connections witheach of the tracks 1.

3 are two overhead crane runways disposed lengthwise of the yard andparallel with the tracks 1.

4; are crane runways disposed crosswise of the yard and at aconsiderable height above the runways 3.

5 are overhead cranes running on the lengthwise runways 3, and 6 areoverhead cranes on the crosswise runways 4.

7 indicate railway cars, 8 being the wheels thereof and 9 the end framesof the trucks.

10 are the main carriages of the cranes 5 which operate, in the usualmanner, on tracks 11 mounted upon the cranes 5.

12 is a circular subsidiary carriage rotatably mounted upon a circulartrack 13 carried by the main carriage 10 and by the crosswise crane 6.

These subsidiary carriages 12 are provided with a centrally locatedhollow cylindrical sleeve 14 which extends above and below the carriage12, the lower sleeve extension having a bearing in a central circularorifice in the main carriage 10.

15 is a rack carried by the upper face of each of the carriages 12 andextends around the periphery thereof.

16 is an electric motor mounted upon the main carriage 10 and driving apinion 17 which meshes with the rack 15.

18 is a rigid crane arm, the upper portion 19 of which is cylindricaland is journalled within the sleeve 14 of the subsidiary carriage 12.

formed on bosses 20 is a vertically disposed rack formed on the exteriorof the cylindrical portion 19, and 21 is a pinion rotatably carried bythe subsidiary carriage 12 and is driven by a motor 22. I

23 is a horizontal beam carried by the lower end of the rigid crane arm19.

24 are depending hangers carried on each side of the beam 23.

These hangers are arranged in laterally opposed pairs, the hangers ofeach pair being connected by a cross member 25.

The hangers carry on their upper ends rollers 26 which engage runways 27in the beam 24 so that the hangers are movable along the beam.

28 are lifting members hingedly connected at 29 to the lower ends of thehangers 24. These lifting members are provided with upwardly disposedshoulders 30 which engage downwardly disposed shoulders 31 32 carried bythe hangers 24.

33 are cables connected at 34 to the lifting members 28 and passupwardly over rollers 35 journalled in the rigid arm 18 and areconnected to drums 36 which drums are rotated by a motor 37 mountedwithin the rigid arm 18.

There are two rollers 35, one being at each side of the arm 18. Thecables 33 from the two lifting members 28 at one side of the beam 23pass over the roller on the corresponding side of the arm 18. I

Suitable guides are provided on the hangers 24 for guiding the cables33. These are indicated at 56 (see Figs. 3 and 4) and might be in theform of pulleys, rollers, plain guide brackets or any other suitabledevice.

38 are downwardly inclined guide plates extending along the outer sidesof the rails 1 and slope downwardly towards the rails (see Fig.

39 are downwardlyinclined curved plates similarly disposed along theinner sides of the rails 1.

These guide plates 38 and 39 are rigidly supported in any suitablemanner from the road bed, as for instance upon a concrete foundation asindicated diagrammatically by the broken lines at 55 and 56 in Fig. 3.

40 indicates a built up type of end frame used on some freight cartrucks in which the through bolts 41 project below the frame. v

42 is a metal pad detachably mounted on the bottom member of the frame40 by set screws or studs 43. This pad is provided with recesses 44adapted to accommodate the lower; projecting portions of the bolts 41and is provided with the flat under surface 45, the purpose of whichwill appear hereinafter.

Referring to Figure 7 an alternative form of grappling device is shown,which consists of a divided hook having the upper portion 46 and thelower portion 47. The hook is hingedly connected at 48 to the lower endof the hanger 24.

49 is a boss formed on the hanger and engages the upper hook portion 46and lim-- its the upward rotation thereof.

50 and 51 are opposed engaging shoulders formed on the upper and lowerhook portions respectively.

In this construction the cable 33 is secured at 52 to the lower hookportion 47.

53 indicates the rimof one of the car wheels 8, 54 being the web of thewheel. 7

Suitable brakes (not shown) would be provided for all motors used. V

The construction and operation of my invention is as follows:

When it is desired to remove a car from one track location to anotherwithin the yard, one of the cranes 5 is brought to its proper positionabove the car, and the main carriage 10 moved so that it is over the carto be lifted.

The cables 33 are then slackened by means of the motor 37 so that thelifting mem bers 28 hang freely.

The rigid vertical arm 18 is then lowered by means of the motor 22, rack20 and pinion 21 so that the hangers 24 pass downwardly on each side ofthe car.

As the arm descends the freely hanging members 28 strike the inclinedguide plates 38 and are automatically raised into their correct positionto engage under the trucks of the car. When in this position the cables33 are tightened. Y

The inclined plates 38 thus constitute means for guiding the grapplingelements into the correct operative engagement with the running gear asthe crane descends.

Upon the raising of the arm 18 the car is bodily lifted off the rails 1and since the lifting members 28 engage under the trucks it will beevident that the entire car, including all the running gear thereof, islifted and while in the suspended position no disengagement of any ofthe running gear is possible.

The car is then transferred to the desired new track location and thearm 18 lowered.

As the car is lowered if it is not positioned exactly centrally abovethe track the wheels 8 will engage the inclined guide plates 38, andwill be automatically guided thereby into their correct position uponthe rails.

The plates 39 on the inside of the rails will also assist in properlypositioning the car these plates 38 and also the plates 39 form a meansof automatically guiding it to its correct position on the rails.

In this way a great saving in time will be effected since it is onlynecessary for the crane operator to gauge the position of his craneapproximately and it is not necessary that time and labor be wasted incoupling up the grappling mechanism.

A feature of my construction is the incorporation of a turntable withinthe crane and from an examination of Figure 3, "it will be noted that,when the car is suspended, the rigid vertical arm 18 may be rotated bymeans of the motor 16, pinion 17 and rack 15 so that the car may beturned end for end.

In transfeu'ing cars by the method de scribed it is essential thatprovision be made for preventing the undue swinging of the suspended carand this is entirely overcome in my invention by the manner in which thevertical arm is connected to the crane.

The sleeve 14. in which the upper end of the crane arm is journalledforms a means of preventing all swinging of the arm and therefore thedanger of accidents due to swinging of a suspended car is eliminated.

Ordinarily the lifting members 28 will extend under the flat end surfaceof the truck frame but in certain types such as that illustrated inFigure there are bolts extending through the frame in which cases itwill be advisable to fit a pad such as the pad 42.

The operation of the modified grappling arrangement shown in Fig. 7 willbe apparent.

when lowering the crane over a car the cables 38 will be slackened asalready described with the previous construction, permitting the dividedhooks to hang freely, and at the proper time these hooks will be placedin their operative engagement with the car wheels by hand and upon thetightening of the cables 33 the hooks will securely grip the wheelsunder the rim 53.

The car is lifted by raising the rigid vertical arm as alreadydescribed.

he cross cranes 6 must of course be at such a height that a.car can belifted over the other cars and the crane runways which are parallel tothe tracks. In order to permit operation of these crosswise cranes thetracks under the crosswise runways should be kept clear so that therewill be space for the lengthwise cranes to deposit cars within thesphere of the crosswise cranes.

These cross cranes would be used in shifting cars from the sphere of onelengthwise crane to another.

7 he cranes 5 and 6 and the main crane carriages 10 would beelectrically driven in the ordinary manner and as this forms no part ofmy invention the details of this drive have not been illustrated ordescribed.

A further feature of my construction is that due to the use of anabsolutely rigid crane arm, it will be possible for the cranes to beused as locomotives for simply pushing cars along the tracks and thusthe cranes will of themselves be able to completely make up a trainwithout assistance from a locomotive. A crane which lifts by means ofcables is not rigid enough to operate quickly and satisfactorily as alocomotive or to stop a car quickly and accurately.

The application of my system to a terminal yard will not in any wayinterfere with the operation of the ordinary method of switching carssince the tracks are not interfered with. This permits the removal of acar track location without interfering with independent switchingoperations which may be going on on that track by a locomotive in theordinary way.

It is to be noted that with my device the car wheels are maintainedparallel to the rails while the car is suspended.

From the foregoing it will be evident that I have devised valuableimprovements in equipment for transferring railway cars which shouldgreatly increase the capacity of railway terminal yards and greatlyexpedite the sorting of cars and the making up of trains.

Various modifications may be made in my invention without departing fromthe spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims and therefore theforms shown are to be taken as illustrative only and not in a limitingsense.

For instance, while I have illustrated and described a particular cargrappling mechanism, various modifications might be made in the exactdetails. of construction.

Also it might be desirable in certain installations to employ gantrycranes in place of the overhead type above described in which case theconstruction would necessarily have to be slightly altered to suit thistype of crane.

Also it is to be understood that the lifting members 28 might bearranged to limit longitudinal movement of the car due to inertia of thecar upon the starting and stopping of the crane.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a device for transferring railway cars the combination with atravelling crane adapted to lift a car bodily off the supporting rails,of car grappling elements carried by the crane and engageable with therunning gear of a car to be lifted, inclined guide plates placedparallel with and on the outer sides of the rails, said plates beingsituated adjacent to and inclined downgear of the car as the car islowered to be redeposlted upon the rails.

wardly towards the rails and adapted to on gage the grappling elementsas the crane is lowered to pick up a car.

2. In a device for transferring railway cars the combination with atravelling crane adapted to lift a car bodily off the supporting rails,of car grappling elements carried by the crane and engageable with therunning gear of a car to be lifted, lncllned igulde plates placedparallel with and on the inner sides of the rails, said plates beingsituated adprcent to and inclined downwardly towards the rails andadapted to engage the running gear of the car as the car is lowered tobe redeposited upon the rails.

3. In a device for transferrlng railway cars the conib1nat1on with atravelling crane adapted to lift a car bodily off the supporting rails,of car grappling elements carried by the crane and engageable wlth therunning gear of a car to be lifted, 1n-

- clined guide plates placed parallel with and 4. A device fortransferring railway cars comprising a crane, a rlgid vertical armslidably carried in vertical guides on the crane, means for raising andlowering the arm vertically in its guides, means for retating the armabout its vertical axis, and

car grappling means carried at the lower end of the rigid arm, saldgrappling means engageable with a fixed portlon of the truck of a car tobe lifted.

down in vertical guides, a horizontal beam carried at the lower end ofthe rigid arm, depending hangers associated with the horizontal. beam,said hangers arranged in a plurality ofrpairs, each pair composed of ahanger at each side of the beam and adapted to lie at opposite sides ofa car to be lifted, the pairs being movable longitudinally of the beam,lifting members hingedly carried at the lower ends of the hangers andengageable with the running gear of a car to be lifted, engaging bossesformed on the hangers and lifting members for limiting the upwardrotation of said lifting members, means for maintaining the aforesaidbosses in their engaged positions and means for raising and lowering therigid vertical arm.

HERBERT BRISTOL DWIGHT.

Witnesses:

JOHN J. MAYNARD, NORIEEN Cows,

